New center focuses on high-end medical equipment

A high-end medical equipment innovation center was opened over the weekend in Shanghai.

The Shanghai High-End Medical Equipment Innovation Center was jointly established by the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and several partners including Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co. 

They also jointly set up the High-End Medical Equipment Innovation Alliance in the Yangtze River Delta region.

According to the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, the Shanghai Liwei Medical Technology Co will be in charge of operations at the newly established center. 

With support from the High-End Medical Equipment Innovation Alliance in the Yangtze River Delta region and the B&R Medical Equipment Innovation and Application Alliance, it will coordinate the whole process of medical equipment design, research and development, testing, authentication and mass production.

The center will focus on the technological frontiers of high-end medical equipment, overcoming challenges to promote "leap-forward" development in the industry and cultivate interdisciplinary talent.

According to the university, it has launched 159 programs in cooperation with other partners, including seven assessed by experts as deserving industrialization, three of which has developed into registered companies.

These include an ultrasound knife program. According to the university team, China relies on imported ultrasound knives in surgeries, which is very expensive as a host machine costs 500,000 yuan (US$75,700) and a single-use cut bit costs 6,000 yuan. Meanwhile, the cut bits also have a 2 percent risk of breakage during surgeries.

After the challenges were raised by doctors at Changhai Hospital, the university set up a team in two weeks and worked out a solution in one year. The product will enter the test phase soon and the new center will give it support in the following process.

“Previously, most of the programs of our teachers stopped after they achieved findings in labs because it’s a long and tedious process to bring their products into the market,” said Cui Haipo, vice dean of the university’s School of Medical Instruments and Food Engineering and leader of the ultrasound knife program.

“Now, our university has built up a new crossover system for medicine and engineering, in which we can connect with all links in the innovative chain, resource chain and industrial chain and transfer our research findings into products that can serve the public,” he added. “It gives us great sense of achievement.”